First impressions, wow thats alot of game. Rules look interesting, will update after playing. First game was long, 4 players trying to figure out the different elements of the game. Overall impression was very good but need to play many more times. After an excellent 2 player game I raised my rating to 10. It is just such a thought provoking game with endless possiblities. After the game I just kept thinking about it and analizing how everything played out. I could play this game everyday. After 22 plays, still find this one of the best 2 player strategy games I have ever played and the expansion makes the experience even better.

Gorgeous, epic game if you don't mind the randomness of the dice and cards ... which I don't. The theme is reflected VERY well in this game. The game isn't particularly easy to teach or learn, because the rulebook isn't one of the best I've read.

It will take a couple of games to really get the hang of it. This game however, is worth all the effort.

The map can get cramped, and the Nazgul are clumsy, but otherwise fantastic production.

Stunning, epic affair that captures the Lord of the Rings theme in a manner I doubt anyone imagined could be done. The Shadow's military might and action dice advantage (which can be swiftly increased by bringing out Saruman) are set against the Free People's resiliency to sieges and, of course, the Fellowship's movement towards Mordor. The action cards lend a wonderful boost to each game's unique story arc and can spring a number of nasty surprises on an opponent in regular play or when used for combat effects.

There are some issues: the map is a drab, disappointing reddish-brown with weird symbology for VP spaces and three different settlement icons that can be tough to distinguish. Nation borders are tricky in spots, too. The action card text is almost impossibly small in many cases, bordering on microsopic. The Free figures can look a bit samey, but I ended up painting the bases of mine to lend a hand visually. The rules as written are a catastrophe and result in many people playing key rules wrong the first few times out--definitely print out a player aid or two from this site.

Fortunately, none of those things come anywhere close to knocking this down from a flat-out perfect 10. A game I will never, ever turn down.

If there's a game that betters War of the Ring in terms of delivering a fantastic, nail-biting experience while expertly balancing narrative and strategic gameplay, I haven't tried it (Update: I've at least now played its equal and it's Twilight Struggle). Many strategy games tend to make concessions when it comes to theme to ensure the mechanics are accessible to new players, or the thematic elements are only pin-on dressings with just a tenuous attachment to what the player is actually doing. Not so, here. This game drops the players right in the middle of a warring Middle Earth. The players are first and foremost competing for victory, but every single action taken towards this goal compound to create an exciting and engaging alternate telling of the Lord of the Rings epic. When playing, I keep switching between grinning like a kid because of the cool situations that are unfolding and scratching my head trying to decide what would be the best course of action.

There are some nitpicks about the production quality that can be made (small text on the event cards, awkward board for handling so many pieces, overly esoteric and subtle symbols to differentiate regions and nationalities) but, really, these don't detract from my enjoyment of the game one iota as these problems are greatly outweighed by what this gorgeous production does right.

(My one worry: I hope the first 95% of the game isn't essentially pointless and that the victor isn't always decided by luck of the draw once (if) the Fellowship enters Mordor.)

I won’t comment on the strategic aspects of this game because I’m sure that the majority of War of the Ring players has already commented this way. I’ll just say I’m an incredible admirer of J.R.R. Tolkien´s works and certainly I can say that War of the Ring is, as good as it’s possible, accurate to the original history: for example, when some particular events happen during the game, I’ve realized that this occurs in the same sense and meaning as in Tolkien´s books, as if a mysterious will could make them become real! (In fact, this is, in my opinion, one of the strong points of the game).So… great strategy, good concordance to the history, well defined rules, incredible board and piece design… what more can you ask for? (If I could, I would give a better qualification than 10 to this game. Get it or repent of your bad decison!)

There was this girl in college...let's call her Darcy, for no particular reason. The first time I saw this game was like the first time I saw Darcy: I immediately wanted to love it. The first time I played this felt like the first time I met Darcy: I immediately did love it. Unlike Darcy, however, this game loved me right back in unspeakable ways and failed spectacularly to turn me into a bereft and bitter creature resigned to the futility of existence and the perpetual agony of squatting on the pointy end of a soul-sucking vortex of despair.

This game is almost as good as I hoped Darcy would be; one cannot simply abandon reason, after all. But for the longest time, I assumed my deep and abiding wannabe-love would go unrequited just as it had with her.

At BGG.CON 2012, a kindly soul reached down into the sucking void and lifted me out by teaching me this and playing it--twice! That's twice in four days, which for me is pretty darn good, whether it's gaming or loving.

It's exactly like love should be: beautiful, deep, true, entrancing, captivating and challenging. And when you see it, there's probably no chance that you will be so nervous about asking it for some together time that you flee in shame and cower in your room convinced that you will die alone and unloved and hated by small animals, that last one for no particular reason except that it elevates your self-pity and self-loathing to new heights for entertainment's sake.

Reject the sweet lies spread by the shallow and the jealous: that it is unapproachable and vain and tedious. No, it goes deep and stays deep, and if you can't appreciate that, then you don't deserve her...err, it. Love it, and it will love you back.

"Just get that sucka to the designated place at the designated time and I will gladly designate his ass...for dismemberment!" - Sho Nuff.

10

Apr 2013

A very tight design! The designer captures both the Fellowship of the Ring story involving taking the ring to volcano to destroy as well as the battle for Middle Earth and the return of the King and the ascension of Gandalf. Much of the story (at least as much as I know it) is contained in the game while and you are playing a great game of resource, dice, and card management. It's a bit long, but so were the books and so were the movies: you simply cannot tell this epic tale in a short setting.

[DK] An epic battle for Middle Earth in a parallel universe... Best two player game I've ever tried, especially if you are a LotR fan. Good mechanics which fit the story surprisingly well. The only problem is that you need about 1h for the setup and 4h for playing it...[Later edit] Setup+play=3h[Even later edit] If at first I though gameplay is long... Wait until you see how long it takes to paint all the miniatures

THE Lord of the Rings game IMO with a great integration of theme. Also a very good asymmetric strategy / war game. Action dice and situational event cards mean a different story gets told every game. Successful integration of theme and tension usually lasts until the very end. Luck can be a factor, and many games could go either way based on the final tile pulls. Even better with painted miniatures.